MANILA -- Bureau of Immigration (BI) personnel at the international airports in the country have been ordered to strictly screen foreign passengers especially those coming from the Middle East who are holders of European passports.
The directive was issued after bureau personnel last week, intercepted another attempt by an international trafficking syndicate to smuggle a family of three Iranians disguised as Belgians at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1.
In his report to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, BI port operations division chief Marc Red Mariñas said the foreigners, a woman, and her two children were intercepted at the NAIA I upon their arrival aboard a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok on December 23.
He added that they were immediately excluded and booked on the first available flight to their port of origin.
“As a result of this incident, we have instructed our immigration officers to be doubly strict in examining the travel papers of arriving foreigners, particularly Middle Eastern nationals who present European passports,” the BI official said in a statement.
Mariñas explained that the names of the passengers were not divulged, considering the two of them are children, noting that they were mere victims of the syndicate that gave them their bogus Belgian passports.
It was learned that the Iranians aroused the suspicion of BI officers after they presented their Belgian passports for inspection. They were referred for secondary inspection to the members of the BI travel control and enforcement unit.
But during the interview, the passengers could not explain their travel itinerary or their purpose in coming to the Philippines.
The BI anti-fraud section had certified that their passports were fraudulent after conducting an examination of the travel documents.
The bio–pages of the passports were declared to be counterfeit, particularly pages 3 and 4 which were allegedly tampered. (PNA)
